Ealing parking wardens have been accused of unfair ticketing, after recent figures showed that four out every five parking appeals went the way of the motorist.

The Tory-run organisation London Councils has issued statistics showing that last year 1,824 appeals against parking tickets were made in Ealing, with 1,458 (79.9%) of those being upheld. In 2005/06, just 52.6% of appeals were upheld.

The most recent figures are also the highest in West London, with 65.7% of appeals upheld in Brent, 47.4% in Hammersmith and Fulham, 46.9% in Hounslow, 44.2% in Hillingdon, and 36.5% in Harrow.

Cllr Bassam Mahfouz, Shadow Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said: “It’s obviously good that so many motorists who have been punished unfairly have been able to win appeals against the Council.

"However, the sheer number of upheld appeals shows that there are a shocking number of tickets being handed out for no good reason. The Council should be ensuring that their parking wardens are only ticketing those who have genuinely broken local regulations. Instead they are going through a laborious and expensive process of cancelling unfair tickets that should never have been given in the first place.”